"The material in all cases will be identical since bespoke tailors the world over procure their suitings from the same English sources, the great woolen merchants of the English Midlands and the equally esteemed weavers of choice fabrics in Scotland. There are almost no other sources of luxury cloth if you except the brief rash of Italian silk suitings which found such favor with American gangster types that they never made an appreciable impression on the market.
In London and in New York the workmanship in each case will be identical; painstaking, expert handcraft performed by an ancient guild whose numbers are shrinking alarmingly in a mechanized world of cheapness and shoddy. The product from Hong Kong will be as skillfully cut and designed as the other two, since Fenwick or any other Hong Kong bespoke tailor will undertake to duplicate any suit that you wish them to use for a model, but the findings, that is to say the stuff inside the pockets, the thread with which the garments are sewn and the buttons attached, the lining, unless you specify a high grade silk at a small extra charge, and the coarse materials used to stiffen shoulders and lapels will be of quality inferior to that used by reputable men's tailors in New York and London."
In London and in New York the workmanship in each case will be identical; painstaking, expert handcraft performed by an ancient guild whose numbers are shrinking alarmingly in a mechanized world of cheapness and shoddy. The product from Hong Kong will be as skillfully cut and designed as the other two, since Fenwick or any other Hong Kong bespoke tailor will undertake to duplicate any suit that you wish them to use for a model, but the findings, that is to say the stuff inside the pockets, the thread with which the garments are sewn and the buttons attached, the lining, unless you specify a high grade silk at a small extra charge, and the coarse materials used to stiffen shoulders and lapels will be of quality inferior to that used by reputable men's tailors in New York and London."
- The Big Spenders by Lucius Beebe
Photograph courtesy of Desmond Merrion
4 comments:
Do you concur, from your experiences?
About London and what's left of New York, yes.
I don't have current experience with Hong Kong tailored clothing. The deficiencies I have observed have had more to do with their process which, for garments acquired through the travelling tailor program, leaves out two important fittings for the first garment. The buyer needs to insist, and usually pay extra, for these.
"There are almost no other sources of luxury cloth if you except the brief rash of Italian silk suitings which found such favor with American gangster types that they never made an appreciable impression on the market."
Isn´t Italian Loro Piana one of the best luxury cloth source?
(The largest cashmere manufacturer and the biggest single purchaser of the world’s finest wools)
The book was published in 1967. LP was not much of a presence then.
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